Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[BK9300]

The sander had a turn back at the bench today.  Needed to get the license plate and holder sorted for both the rear of the sander and for the front plow lift/bumper group.  I also got lucky a few days ago finding a bit of thin rubber in some packaging that helped me get past a long outstanding 'how to' problem - I still needed some bungee straps to hold down the ends of the rubber flaps over the pre-wet tanks.

 

License plate decals applied to 0.25 mm styrene and will sit over night before I cut the plate from the plastic.  The plate holders are from Detail Master -

 

Can't remember what this thin rubber shape came from, but it turned out to be thin enough (mostly!), and strong enough to take a bit of a stretch.   I had to tape down a section so I could cut straight strips -

 

The nickel rod sections formed into the strap hooks -

 

 

Had to carefully drill 4 holes for the straps to hook into the sander fenders.  Only a bit of tension on rubber straps - I don't really know how long lived they will be, before pulling through either the strap or the main flap corner(s)!  Thinking I had better get to final pics as soon as possible -

 

This is just an afterthought but looked kind of neat - was test fitting grille onto hood to see if any of the prep coat for chrome was hindering the fit.  Turned out not yet, but looked interesting so took a pic

 

License plates should be finished tomorrow, and a second coat of black on chrome parts.  Quite rainy here, so painting a bit hit and miss!

 

[gotnitro?]

Awesome little bungee cords ! Where did you find the nickel rod you used for the hooks?

Looking forward to your chrome work

[Biggu]

Again spot on !

[BK9300]

10 hours ago, gotnitro? said:

Awesome little bungee cords ! Where did you find the nickel rod you used for the hooks?

Looking forward to your chrome work

A local hobby store carries a bunch of the Albion tubing and rods - brass and aluminum.  I think I’ve come across some of Albion’s stuff online, a different hobby sites, like Sunward.  Thanks, Jeff!
 

 

1 hour ago, Biggu said:

Again spot on !

Thanks, Jeff - appreciate it!

[BK9300]

Need to step away for a couple weeks, maybe till after Christmas.  Won't be any progress to post until I get the chrome stuff done and I'm not going to rush that.  In the meantime, I have a bit of a display idea to work on, for Under Glass, when that time comes.   Something to provide a backdrop for the pictures I want to take.

I did finish off the license plates, though.

Bit of 'icing on the cake' for the back end of the sander - 

 

So, one of the pics of real truck had the front plate slightly off level - I'd like to say I made mine to copy it but, truth is, just couldn't keep it steady as I attached it!  Maybe should have stuck with just the decal, which I would have had better luck with keeping it straight, but wanted the 0.25mm styrene for some depth to the plate.  I couldn't work with the super small photo etch bolt heads that came with the Detail Master plates, so applied some aluminum, enamel paint dots instead -

 

A lot is going to happen, in short order, once the remaining cab parts are painted.  Get those parts glued on to the cab, get cab installed, terminate the firewall wiring and loom runs, get the air lines from the back of the cab to the hydraulic valve manifold, install the sander and finish off stuff under the hood.   That stuff makes up the last three pages of my punch list.  If anything else develops differently, I will post an update!

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by BK9300
typo